At times discreetly, at times disgustingly, I yielded to the most fatal temptation whenever I could no longer bear it: as a result of impatience, Orpheus lost Eurydice; as a result of impatience, I lost myself. Jean-Paul Sartre More Quotes by Jean-Paul Sartre More Quotes From Jean-Paul Sartre I have changed as everyone changes: within a permanency. Jean-Paul Sartre i-have-changed changed I said to myself, 'I want to die decently'. Jean-Paul Sartre dies want said This then is the age of reason. Jean-Paul Sartre age-of-reason age reason A good hanging now and then -- that entertains folk in the provinces and robs death of its glamour. Jean-Paul Sartre folks glamour now-and-then Either the USSR was not the country of socialism, in which case socialism didn't exist anywhere and doubtless, wasn't possible: or else, socialism was that, this abominable monster, this police state, the power of beasts of prey. Jean-Paul Sartre police monsters country The sun is not ridiculous, quite the contrary. On everything I like, on the rust of the construction girders, on the rotten boards of the fence, a miserly, uncertain light falls, like the look you give, after a sleepless night, on decisions made with enthusiasm the day before, on pages you have written in one spurt without crossing out a word. Jean-Paul Sartre light night fall One could only damage oneself through the harm one did to others. One could never get directly at oneself. Jean-Paul Sartre damage oneself harm Love or hatred calls for self-surrender. He cuts a fine figure, the warm-blooded, prosperous man, solidly entrenched in his well-being, who one fine day surrenders all to love—or to hatred; himself, his house, his land, his memories. Jean-Paul Sartre cutting men memories Little flashes of sun on the surface of a cold, dark sea. Jean-Paul Sartre sea dark sun I entered the Communist Party because its cause was just and I will leave it when it ceases to be just. Jean-Paul Sartre communist causes party Criminals together. We're in hell, my little friend, and there's never any mistake there. People are not damned for nothing. Jean-Paul Sartre together mistake people The plight of modern man is that he is condemmed to be free. Jean-Paul Sartre plight modern men Ah! Do not judge the gods, young man, they have painful secrets. Jean-Paul Sartre judging secret men Abjection is a methodological conversion, like Cartesian doubt and Husserlian epoche: it establishes the world as a closed system which consciousness regards from without, in the manner of divine understanding. Jean-Paul Sartre understanding doubt world I clung to nothing, in a way I was calm. But it was a horrible calm—because of my body; my body, I saw with its eyes, I heard with its ears, but it was no longer me; it sweated and trembled by itself and I didn’t recognize it any more. Jean-Paul Sartre body eye ears Happiness has to be installed in each person as a state of affairs completely cut off from the process that brought it about and, in particular, from the real situation. Man has to be affected with happiness. It is a tonality given to him. Contradiction: if one does take care to give him happiness, it is because he is a free creature--but in order to give it to him, one turns him into an object. Jean-Paul Sartre cutting real men But I must finally realize that I am subject to these sudden transformations. The thing is that I rarely think; a crowd of small metamorphoses accumulate in me without my noticing it, and then, one fine day, a veritable revolution takes place. Jean-Paul Sartre crowds revolution thinking I have always been an optimist, perhaps even too much. Jean-Paul Sartre optimist too-much From the period when I wrote La Nausea I wanted to create a morality. My evolution consists in my no longer dreaming of doing so. Jean-Paul Sartre nausea morality dream If I did not publish this autobiography [Les Mots] sooner and in its most radical form, it is because I considered it exaggerated. Jean-Paul Sartre radical autobiography form
